We really were Number 1 (as in degrees, Fahrenheit) on Wednesday

When I woke up Wednesday, the television got tuned quickly to the Weather Channel, where after listening to some sissy Atlantans complain about cold and snow a report came along from Chicago indicating the current temperature was 1 degree.

What a depressing thought. One mere degree!!!

THE NATIONAL WEATHER Service indicated that the day did warm up slightly – Jan. 7, 2015 officially had a high temperature of 6 degrees recorded at O’Hare International Airport.

But the fact is it is cold out there. And not just winter weather cold (we’re used to that). I’m talking about hazardous to one’s life cold, if one doesn’t have enough sense to take precautions. What went through the heads of all those “Polar Bear” types (the ones who insist on taking a New Year’s Day swim) is beyond me.

Many school districts, including the Chicago Public Schools, have cancelled classes the past two days. In fact, the Chicago schools made the call Wednesday afternoon that they were going to remain closed for Thursday.

Which has led to complaints from people who seem determined to find something to gripe about. Stupid school administrators turning our kids into sissies who can’t cope with a little cold weather.

AS THEY WANT to see it, the snowfall stopped days ago, the streets are largely cleared, and they want to view it as ridiculous that kids can’t make a short walk to school – no matter how cold the temperature is.

Which is something I’ll have to admit seems unusual. Although I found it amusing the Facebook-posted observation of one of my former City News Bureau of Chicago counterparts who recalled winters past of having to check with stores on snow shovel sales as part of weather story coverage. If only that were a significant issue this week.

This winter and last may have seen schools close more than I recall schools closing back the entire time I was still required to get a basic education (which was the 1970s and early 1980s).

I recall the winter of 1977 in junior high school because that was a particularly cold spell for Chicago. I recall the school closings, and listening to local radio stations in suburban Lansing and Hammond, Ind., to see if our local schools were closed.

I STILL HAVE the memories of the day where the temperature dipped to about zero, yet my school district did NOT close. Although as I recall, my mother felt it was ridiculous for me to make the roughly six-block walk in that kind of temperature, and she had me and my brother (who had about a two-block walk to his school) stay home.

She wound up writing me the note for my teacher that basically said “Please excuse Gregory. It was too cold to send him to school.”

Believe it or not, the teachers accepted that, and my absence that day was excused.

But what really sticks in my memory is that winter temperatures were in the 30s to 20s (in degrees, Fahrenheit). The number of days that dipped below zero were truly rare.

IT IS WHY I find it bizarre the number of such frigid days we have experienced in recent years.

It also makes me think that the people who are complaining that the schools are closed are ones who have overly-heated offices to work out of, and probably have the heat in their cars turned up full-blast!

If, by chance, they had to shovel their own sidewalks, they’re probably now griping beyond belief once they got back inside their homes.

In my case, I have worked from home this week. I haven’t really had to go outside – except to check the mailbox to see if the proverbial paycheck is “in the mail” and which bills will eat up every single penny of it!

SO PERHAPS I’M willing to give those school officials some understanding on why it might not be best to expect so many kids to converge on their buildings on days like this week. I also feel sympathy for the mail carrier whose job required him to trudge to my front door on a daily basis.

The last thing we need is an increase in frostbite cases that need to be reported on – or other illnesses being triggered by the Arctic-like temperatures we’re now facing in Chicago.

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I can’t figure the weather, but my mother still helps keep me warm

At first, I thought it was my imagination.


I was walking to a Metra commuter rail station Saturday morning when damp little driplets began to pelt my face.

IT WAS CLEAR that it was not rainfall. But snow? This early in the season. When we’re officially still two months away from the beginning of winter?

Sure enough, it was.

A snowfall so light that it barely registered. But it is what we got hit with in Chicago this morning, and the cloudy overcast day and cold temperatures made worse by the fact that I spent a part of the morning right on the shore of Lake Michigan (at the one-time U.S. Steel South Works site) where there were no big buildings to alter the breeze.

I got hit with a blast of chill. It felt like a winter’s day. And when later in the day it started to actually rain, I got soaked and seriously cold.

SATURDAY NIGHT, the temperatures were to hit levels just above freezing.

I guess what I’m really trying to say here is that I got spoiled by what essentially was a mild summer. It was fairly comfortable. We didn’t get many days of excessively high temperatures.

I definitely got spoiled by the notion of comfortable temperatures. I’m not ready yet for excess winter cold.

Particularly if it is anything like those excessive days of heavy snow and sudden chill that we endured over and over and over again back in January and February of this year.

FOR THE RECORD, this is not the earliest snowfall on record in Chicago. The national Weather Service says that in both 1928 and 1944 on Sept. 25, the Second City got hit with traces of snow.

So 2014 will be the year we can chant “We’re Number 3!!!” when it comes to snowfall. But that fact does not make this weekend any more pleasant.

The fact that Sunday was a bit warmer than Saturday only means we had to appreciate the slight uptick in heat all the more, since it is clear summertime is over – although the fact that baseball is still being played without Chicago ball clubs ought to have been the ultimate evidence of that fact.

Despite all this attitude that really is one step up from a whine, I can’t say I would want to give serious thought to leaving Chicago. The city has way too much going for it for me to consider leaving just because of a dose of cold.

BESIDES, THE FACT is that in the “real” world, temperatures get cold. I don’t know that I fully trust any place where people think a 30-plus degree day is a cold spell and evidence of the polar vortex.

If anything, the most unpleasant aspect of snow in Chicago is that it will get all the nitwits worked up who think they have a right to stake claims to parking spaces on public streets by dredging up all their summertime lawn furniture.

I’d suggest citing those people for littering, except that I realize our police officers really do have more significant things they ought to be doing with their time while on duty.

What I’m going to dredge up is one of my warmer jackets – one that I tucked away back in March and haven’t worn since.

IT IS ONE that I got as a present from my mother for Christmas 2009 – a leather jacket (although I do have one of those heavy, bulky down jackets for the truly shivering days).

That happens to be the last Christmas I celebrated with my mother prior to her passing. It was a last gift she gave to me.

So as I go about in coming weeks managing to stay warm despite the chill in the air, all I’ll have to say is, “Thanks Mom.”

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I'm shuddering these days. And not from the near-freezing chill in the air!

I feel like the dread I have anticipated all winter is finally on the verge of hitting us.



We're likely to get hit Tuesday with a heavy snowfall -- possibly the heaviest of our winter season.

JUST AT THE point in time that we're supposed to be thinking our winter season is over (even if you believe prognostications that the stinkin' groundhog saw his shadow), we're now getting the snow.

We had a few days last week of snowfall that built up into a few inches.

Now, the National Weather Service says we're getting hit with a snowfall that could build up to six inches by Tuesday night. Or maybe up to nine inches -- depending on whose weather forecast you decide to trust.

The 2012-13 winter in Chicago that went for several months without a trace of snow is ending on a bang! We're getting hit with the snowfall as though Mother Nature is trying to make up for the lack of flurries she gave us earlier this season.

OR MAYBE MOTHER Nature is upset by Chicago because she thinks we somehow tried to fool her. You remember the old Chiffon margarine commercials?

So now, I wait to see just how bad our weather will get, and how much will it wind up disrupting our life schedule. That, after all, is what the big deal was about that February 2011 storm that dumped nearly two feet of snow on Chicago, and caused the shutdown of Lake Shore Drive -- among other inconveniences!

It really is the snow, not the temperature. Because the one thing we have to admit is that we haven't had any sub-zero days of winter weather in Chicago this season.

It has all been about the slop of snowflakes that some of us can't cope with to the point that they become a nuisance to the rest of us!

WE OUGHT TO be able to handle the cold. Just put on another sweater, or make sure you have a decent heavy coat for the winter season. It is the Midwest.

As I look out my window while writing this, I see the residue of last week's snow -- which wasn't that bad because it came spread out over several days. Except for a litle slippin' and slidin' that my automobile did on the streets on Election Day, it was bearable.

Will this be the unbearable storm?

The one that causes people to panic and start stocking up their cupboards with canned goods as though the "End of the World!!!!" has really arrived upon us?

AND ALSO TO start driving their cars as though they're once again 15 years old and back in high school driver education class all over again?!?

Although I have another reason to wonder what will happen. I do some work for one of the daily newspapers in the suburbs, and I recently wrote some copy that is meant to be part of a bigger story about how this year's "mild" winter is a boost (less salt on the streets, not so much overtime paid to workers for street cleaning) for municipal governments.

That story is now on hold. It will be interesting to see when it will run, and if people will shake their heads in wonder if they read it right after having to shovel their driveways clear of the fluffy stuff.

Although those same National Weather Service forecasts that are predicting six inches on Tuesday also are figuring that by Thursday, temperatures will shoot up into the 40s (degrees). Which could mean a slushy weekend some Saturday.

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